


Hands in Motion

by Badgermole



Series: Colors [19]
Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: ASL, American Sign Language, Autism, Coffee, Colors, Deaf Character, Gen, Nonverbal Communication, Sign Language, Sunglasses, photosensitivity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-13
Updated: 2020-01-13
Packaged: 2021-02-27 13:21:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,433
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22237777
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Badgermole/pseuds/Badgermole
Summary: Logan contacts Anton about teaching Virgil some sign language. They set a date and Anton brings along his son Remy.(Just read it, Nike Swoosh!)
Relationships: Logic | Logan Sanders/Morality | Patton Sanders
Series: Colors [19]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1184909
Comments: 20
Kudos: 207





	Hands in Motion

Logan’s face was as red as a tomato as Patton walked into the living room.

“What’s got you all red?” Patton asked with a light chuckle.

“I just called Anton’s cell and left a message.” Logan glanced down at the phone in his hand.

“Oh about teaching Virgil ASL?” Patton smiled excitedly.

“Well, yes.” Logan nodded. Virgil seemed to hit it off with Anton at the fair and at least seemed interested in what the mine was doing with his hands. Logan really wanted Virgil to pick up signing. It might have been a bit selfish as Logan found the language very interesting and he’d be able to not just learn it but use it. Anyway, there were only so many words one could fit onto a piece of paper. “But I left a voicemail on a deaf man’s man cell phone.”

Patton shook his head with slight disappointment. “I’m sure it happens all the time.”

“Considering his voicemail was not full, I do not believe that to be true.” Logan sighed and tried to remember all of his talking points so that he could repeat what he had said in the voicemail as a text message. Normally he would write down his points but he had felt unusually comfortable calling, probably because he knew that Anton was deaf and wouldn’t end up actually hearing the message. Logan rolled his head back and stared at the ceiling. 

Logan groaned as his dreaded phone buzzed. He wasn’t too surprised to see that it was Anton, but he was surprised at the length of the text. As he read over the message, Anton was responding to the voicemail. Logan supposed he didn’t know how deaf Anton was and he wasn’t familiar with deaf accessibility tools. Regardless of how he heard the contents of the message, Logan texted back quickly and the pair worked out a date and time.

“Anton and his son Remy should be getting here soon,” Logan glanced at his watch. “Do you want to open the door for them?”

Virgil gave a small hum in response but stayed focused on playing with Squoosh. The kitten let out a small meow battle cry as she pounced at the feather toy. Virgil smiled and patted her head. She was so soft and small and cute. Happy purrs vibrated out of Squoosh as she pawed at her captured feather. 

“Did he get a color name?” Patton yelled from the upstairs’ office.

“No,” Logan called back, “and you’re supposed to be working on your lesson plans.” 

A groan rumbled down the stairwell. 

“It is not my fault you procrastinated doing it.” Logan rolled his eyes. They had a giant calendar in the kitchen for a reason.

“Well, it’s your fault I’m doing it now.” Patton countered. “We have guests coming over soon!”

“If you were actually doing your work instead of engaging in this long-range conversation, you would have reached your checkpoint by now.” Logan shrugged to no one.

The knock finally came. 

Logan was happy to see Virgil head for the door, hesitating only to grab Squoosh up into his arms. Though he was suspicious when he heard Patton start down the stairs. 

“I’m an adult. I can do what I want.” Patton retorted at his boyfriend’s mock judging face. Logan snorted as Patton faked a kiss and instead blew a raspberry onto his cheek. “But, for the record, I did actually hit the checkpoint.”

The pair was surprised to see that Virgil had snuck back in with Anton and Remy in tow. They were so used to the loud and dramatic entrances by Roman. 

[Nice to see you again Blue.] Anton smiled at the flustered pair. [Nice to meet you Blue.]

[Nice to see you Anton.] Logan replied while Patton looked a bit lost.

“Nice to meet you, Blue.” Remy interpreted as Anton signed the phrase again. The boy looked to be a couple of years older than Roman.

“Oh, nice to meet you too Anton!” Patton’s eyes flicked between the two guests and moved his hands wildly out of excitement but managed to add a point toward Anton at the end.

Virgil held Squoosh up Simba-style for her introduction, “Squoosh.”

Anton petted the kitten’s head and got clarification of her name with a subtle glance toward his son. When he stood up he gave Squoosh her own nice to meet you. 

“And o’ course, I’m Remy.” The boy introduced himself with his name sign, an R combined with a motion that looked like he was grabbing the frame of his sunglasses.

“Purple,” Virgil added in as he returned the squirming kitten to the floor. Squoosh meowed in thanks then curled up on top of her scratching post in the corner. 

“Please, make yourselves at home.” Logan motioned toward the couch and armchairs. Without hesitation, Remy tossed himself onto the couch and stretched out across the cushions. Anton and Squoosh looked unimpressed, the mime crossed his arms while the kitten turned down a chance to sit on the boy’s chest.

Remy groaned and reluctantly pulled himself into a sitting position. Anton gave a small thank you before sitting beside his son. Virgil stayed in his spot and Logan worried that he was going to disappear up the stairs, but Virgil did eventually move and squished himself between Logan and Patton on the other section of the couch.

“Would you like something to drink?” Patton asked standing up, “Water, coffee, tea, juice?”

“A water would be nice,” Remy interpreted before adding his order of an iced coffee.

Patton couldn’t keep the shock off his face. Anton rolled his eyes but gave a quick okay about his son’s request. The kindergarten teacher still hesitated before finally going to get everyone’s drink. Virgil silently shuffled out of the room behind Patton.

Once everyone was sitting with their drinks and the small plate of cheese and crackers sat on the table courtesy of Virgil, they decided to get down to business. Anton stretched his arms out in front of him and cracked his knuckles. Remy’s eyebrows rose slightly as he peeked over the top of his sunglasses. 

[Should we start?]

All eyes turned to Virgil. The boy was back between his dads and was currently gently chewing on the end of his sweatshirt’s string. His head ducked and his shoulders rose at the sudden attention. 

“Do you want Anton to teach you more sign language?” Logan turned slightly trying not to disrupt his son too much. 

[Nice to meet you.] Virgil signed before flicking his ear a few times. Squoosh poked her head up from her corner sensing her owner’s discomfort. After a slow stretch, Squoosh purposefully stomped across everyone’s laps until she curled up on Virgil’s. 

“Exactly. Just like that but more words for you to use if you want.” Logan gently slapped away Patton’s hand as he reached to pet the cat. 

[I was thinking that we would start with the words on the card that he uses.] Anton paused while Remy interpreted before a big smile took over his face, [Then we can go through all the colors.]

Virgil smiled down at Squoosh and repeated the last sign, his first two fingers drumming against his chin, [Color, color, color, color.]

The lesson was going reasonably well. Virgil had put up a bit of a fight and ended up getting Anton to tell him a color after every couple of words from his cards rather than waiting until the end. Remy found himself fifth wheeling. He hadn’t really wanted to come but his dad didn’t want him home alone. The little kitten had gotten him somewhat excited, but the animal refused to leave the Purple kid’s lap. The occasional foot nudge from his father kept him from falling asleep. It wasn’t enough though so Remy made his way to the kitchen for another cup of coffee. He was supposed to be limited to one a day, but his father wasn’t going to chew him out at someone else’s house. 

The kitchen was annoyingly bright. His eyes twitched and blinked trying to focus: left, both, right, left, left, right, both. He quickly refilled his cup and leaned back against the countertop with his eyes squeezed shut. Sure he should go back into the other room, but it was so quiet and boring in there. His dad wasn’t even a sign language teacher, he was  _ a mime _ . They didn’t even know these people. Anton had met them for all of five minutes a couple of days ago. If he stayed in the kitchen, he would be blocking the knives in case they turned murderous. Yeah, staying here with the coffee pot was to protect his and his father’s life. 

Something rubbed against his leg. 

Remy flinched out of the way to see Squoosh the little kitten scratching at his socks. 

“Don’t you dare rip them up.” Remy pulled himself backward up onto the counter. The persistent feline made some small jumps still trying to get to the socks. 

“Jeez,” Remy muttered under his breath just barely able to hold back a curse. He did his best to calmly folded his legs into a criss-cross. From up there he could see out into the living room. Everyone was still working through signs, it looked like a color if he had to guess.

“Meow.” Remy nearly fell off from his perch. Squoosh had silently jumped up beside him. Once he steadied himself, she went back to rubbing herself over his side.

“Gurl, you nearly made me spill my coffee.” Remy pulled the cup close to his chest for emphasis.

Squoosh kept innocently rubbing her head against him but Remy was not going to give in. She meowed a few more times before realizing that the human was, in fact, not going to pet her. There was a small hiss before she made her way over to the paper towel roll. 

Remy and Squoosh fought over the paper towels. He kept pulling and shaking it but the kitten had her little claws deep in the paper. He tried pulling her off but that had only gotten him bitten. She was definitely manically laughing at him. So here he was sitting on a stranger’s counter while shaking their cat. Cool. 

“Squoosh.” Short arms reached up and effortlessly pulled the upside-down furball from the paper towels. 

“Gurl, that cat is some jerk.” Remy narrowed his eyes at his new mortal enemy. Virgil ignored him and hugged the purring animal to his chest. Squoosh was obviously the best cat ever.

After quite a while of Remy sipping his coffee and watching as the kid cuddled his cat, Remy was bored again. He frowned at the obvious happiness of his enemy.

“Did they teach ya cat?” A small mischievous smile tugged at the corners of his mouth.

“Squoosh.” The boy carefully shifted the cat so he one hand could make the whisker motion for ‘cat’.

The mischief disappeared from his face. He grumbled out a disappointed “yeah”. Remy guessed that he wouldn’t teach the kid any of the alternative signs for ‘cat’: looser, jerk, enemy, evil. Oblivious to Remy’s failed scheming, Virgil gently placed Squoosh back onto the tiled floor. She gave a big stretch before trotting toward the doorframe. 

Once she was gone, Virgil immediately got tense and jittery. Remy watched from his high perch. He thought he might hop down and drag the cat back in but Virgil was too close in front of him. He wouldn’t be able to get down without knocking into the kid. That most definitely would not help calm him down.

“I could try to get her back…” Remy offered lamely. 

There wasn’t anything recognizable as a yes or no so Remy tried to think of another plan. He couldn’t call in any of the adults because he was sitting on the counter with another cup of coffee, two things that would have him grounded for the next week… at least.

Staring down at the melting ice cubes, Remy nearly missed the quick sloppy motion of Virgil’s hands. 

[You help.] 

“Yeah gurl, I want to help you.” Remy simultaneously signed and spoke. 

The kid repeated the signs a few more times but didn’t add anything that Remy could act on. Finally, he lifted his head and stared at Remy. The only barrier between the two’s intense eyes was Remy’s dark black sunglasses. The older boy was surprised. He vaguely knew that autistic people didn’t like eye contact and Virgil hadn’t even come close to anyone’s head the whole time he’s been there. But here he was, staring him down. 

Maybe it was his sunglasses. They were his darkest pair, so there was no way the kid could see his eyes. Whatever the reason, Virgil started to sign again.

[Help you.]

“You?” Remy tried, pointing toward Virgil.

Virgil pointed.

Remy asked again.

Virgil pointed.

“Here?” Remy patted the counter beside him. “Here, not you?”

Virgil shuffled a couple of steps closer and raised his arms. Remy rolled his eyes sarcastically.

“You could’ve just said so, gurl.” 

Remy unfolded his legs and reached down to Virgil’s armpits. As his hands closed into a tight grip, he was surprised at how small the boy was beneath the big baggy purple sweatshirt. The kid started to squirm before Remy had a chance to lift. Instinctively Remy tightened his grip even further which stilled the boy.

“Okay?” Remy checked. Virgil didn’t give any sort of reply so Remy continued. He clumsily and awkwardly hoisted the other up next to him on the counter. The kid quickly scooted away so there was a big space between them, but Remy didn’t mind.

“Cool.”

Remy dropped his finished cup into the sink and dropped his head back against the cabinets. It was still really bright in there. He closed his eyes. When the pain didn’t stop he groaned, average eye pain was morphing into a headache which would then morph into a migraine. Ugh.

A tug on his shirt snapped his head up worried it was one of the adults. He was happy to discover it was just the kid but he preferred the darkness of his eyelids more than both.

[Thank you.] The kid’s hand dropped down from his chin. His head was completely turned away from Remy, but it was pretty obvious it was for him.

“Any time gurl.” He kept his eyes open long enough to see Virgil glance over and toss an empty sweatshirt sleeve onto Remy’s lap. The older boy gave it an uncertain quick pat before dropping his head back.

**Author's Note:**

> And I think that should be the end of the small arc about Virgil & communication. 
> 
> I've been trying to upload either a new work or chapter so there's no gap longer than 14 days.


End file.
